The families of three soldiers who were killed in Iraq have failed to win compensation from the government after they claimed that the MoD should have provided armoured vehicles to protect their family members. Despite not being allowed to sue for compensation they have been given the right to claim for negligence. Despite this the lawyers acting for the families say they will appeal. The original claims were brought under the human rights act, but it was found that this did not apply as the soldiers were not on UK territory at the time of their deaths.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has reported that it received 25% more complaints in 2010/11 than it did in the previous year. It is thought that the failure of Keydata Investment Services was a large part of the increase. The scheme received almost 40,000 claims last year and dealt with 75% more inquiries. 27,000 claims came from Keydata. £535 million was paid out in compensation. It is now a legal requirement that claimants receive their compensation within 20 days of a bank or investment company failing, however the FSCS try to make payments within 3 days. 20% of all claims made last year came from PPI complaints and it is expected this will continue to be a large percentage this year.

The first payments of compensation for Equitable Life customers will be sent out this week. It was finally decided earlier this year that 982,000 policyholders would receive a total of £1.4 billion in compensation after they lost money when the company collapsed in the year 2000. Most compensation payments will be paid over the next three years with the older claimants receiving theirs first. Mark Hoban, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury has commented that they are delighted that after ten years of indecision the payments are finally being made. Those customers who had "with profits" policies will receive the most from the payment scheme as they were judged to have lost the most. 435,000 people failed to win any compensation at all and 100,000 were to receive less than £10 - they will not be paid as the administration was deemed to be too expensive.

Insurance company Axa has said it will no longer accept referral fees from personal injury claims and has asked the government to reform compensation in the UK. The company is the first insurer to back the Association of British Insurers in their bid to stop the payments of referral fees to insurance companies from claims management companies in return for the names of clients. The government has already said that the problem of the UK compensation culture would be addressed by the Legal Aid bill. It has been pointed out this week that insurance companies have long claimed that the rise in insurance costs were due to the rise in compensation payments - however they were also selling details which fuelled this rise. Axa say they had not sold client data but had referred customers to lawyers for legitimate claims. They will no longer accept fees for doing this.

250,000 customers of Tesco Bank may be able to claim compensation after they were unable to access their bank accounts last week due to a technical upgrade. Tesco have apologised for the problem and say they will offer compensation on a case by case basis. The problem occurred when 605,000 customer accounts were migrated from the Royal Bank of Scotland to Tesco bank. Despite most accounts now being fixed, some 2,500 still cannot access their money. Some customers have complained that the customer service lines were very busy.